The invention relates to a method for determining the concentration of a plurality of combustible gases in a gas stream.
Current methods of operating oxygen analyzers enable the determination of the total quantity of combustible gases, such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane, in a gas stream. The steady state electrical current flowing through an electrochemical cell is an indication of the quantity of the combustible gases flowing into the cell cavity from the gas stream, because the electrical current is related to the quantity of oxygen ions flowing from the reference gas through the electrochemical cell from the reference side of the electrochemical cell to the process side of the electrochemical cell and into the cell cavity to consume the combustible gases. These methods, however, do not provide the relative quantities of the combustible gases in the gas stream. PA1 R is the radius of the electrochemical cell; PA1 l is the difference between the length L and the radius R of the electrochemical cell; and PA1 r is the radius of the diffusion limiting port;
Applicants' have disclosed an oxygen analyzer of a type that can be used in the method of the present invention in their U.S. patent application Ser. No. 021,846, filed Mar. 4, 1987, (W.E. 53,198) entitled "Oxygen Analyzer" and assigned to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. The application is herein incorporated by reference.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to develop a method for determining the concentration of each of the combustible gases in a gas stream.